Simo Lumme and the Nalle Puh
by VERN-O

Simo Lumme; The man behind the Nalle Puh fly and the man who helped define a country’s love for fly fishing.

Have you ever heard of the Nalle Puh fly or Simo Lumme?  Most likely as Americans, the answer is no.  I’m here to give you a little insight to what the fly tying world and the Internet can do to broaden your fly fishing horizons.  Simo Lumme was an architect from Finland who had a passion for fly tying and fishing.  The Nalle Puh is regarded as the National Fly of Finland.

Simo created his most famous pattern the Nalle Puh, which translates to Winnie The Pooh, in the late 1960s. The Nalle Puh was designed to represent an egg laying caddis as it hovers and skips across the water’s surface.  The ingenuity of this fly shines with its great floatability and bear fur wings giving the illusion of caddis wings in motion. Today there is a whole clan of Nalle Puh flies: Dark Puh, Honey Puh, CDC Puh, etc. Two things to keep in mind when tying the Nalle Puh; the wings should be more upright than forward, and the body hackle should be slight shorter than the thorax hackle.  These tips help reduce the chances of the fly floating face first in the water.

Nalle Puh
Hook- size 6-16 (dry)
Thread- Orange or yellow
Wing- bear hair or synthetic substitute, tyed in a V
Rib- Fine Gold Wire (counter wrapped over hackle on the abdomen.
Body/dubbing- Orange and yellow poly yarn and hare’s ear blend (nice and buggy)
Hackle-Red-brown rooster on the body and red-brown rooster for front hackle

Simo’s fascination with caddis flies lead to more in depth studies of their behavior and life cycles.  Caddis flies dominate many of the waters in Finland, and are a major food source for the trout and grayling. Simo would often inspect the stomach contents of trout and sketch what he saw in a notebook with ink pens and colored pencils.  His sketches were often done streamside knowing that the stomach acid of a trout would quickly change the color of its contents.  Through his research in the early 1970s Simo learned that certain times of the year trout would feed heavily on sedge pupas.  He came up with an excellent pattern to represent the pupa using reflective trilobal man-made fibers (antron).  It is believed he was one of the first fly tyers to use antron for it’s air-bubble-trapping properties. A good friend, Preben Torp Jacobsen of Denmark named one of Simo’s pupa flies the SL Pupae using his initials. Here is a quote from Preben Torp Jacobsen about the SL Pupae; “Simo is not using very much dubbing - most flytyers use all too much material! After each turn of dubbing he brushes the dubbing backwards with his fingers. In that way, the tying silk will always be close to the hook and not placed on top of another turn of dubbing. After the tying he combs the whole fly with a piece of ‘Velcro’, so that the fibers trail backwards. Should he by accident have used too much dubbing, then he cuts the fly with a pair of scissors and then treats it once more with the 'Velcro'. The tying can seem very simple; but it’s of utmost importance, that the fly looks ‘light’ and surrounded by a 'halo' of fine, fluttering fibers, that diffuse the contour of the fly.”

Here Simo Lumme describes his dubbing mixture to Preben Torp Jacobsen;

"I try to imitate it with a dubbing of a mixture of artificial wools - partly stiff; but with a sharp luster like polyamide (nylon, perlon, antron etc.), partly something more soft like polyacryl (dralon, rayon or natural wool), and I use white wool to 'tone' the colors down. I cut the fibers in short lengths, separate them and mix them thoroughly, until I get the right hue. Exactly the same way a painter mixes the colors on his palette".

SL - Pupae

Hook: 14-10, curved scud

Thread: Black

Rib: Gold or silver wire

Abdomen: Light green antron-dubbing, picked well out at sides

Thorax: Dark hare's fur, dubbed rough

As a skilled architect, Simo Lumme could draw excellent pictures of fly tying sequences and fishing illustrations. He co-authored the most popular book about Finnish fly fishing and fly tying in 1990 (Lumme & Pusa: Perhonsidonta (Fly Tying) Otava 1988, Finland).

The Finnish flyfishing community was shocked in early November 1998 by the sudden death of Simo Lumme at the age of 69.

 Simo Lumme was truly inspirational in his contributions to the fly fishing world.  He knew well the importance of American fishing styles and the etiquette of traditional British fly fishing. 

Combining these two styles he was one the most influential fly fishing figures in Finnish history.

“There really was much more to his fishing than just catching fish.”  Simo Lumme was truly a gentleman and believed highly in ethics both on the water and in everyday life.

For me, what started as a simple inquiry about a fly pattern, evolved into a fond appreciation for another part of the world and the amazing people that I stumbled upon along the way.  I am disappointed that it has taken me this long to learn of Simo Lumme, but I would have been even more disappointed having not learned of him at all.  The next time you tie on a fly, take a moment and wonder what history may lie in it’s creation.

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast? said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said. ……from “The Tao Of Pooh”, by Benjamin Hoff

Books:

 Author: Lumme, Simo and Pusa, Juha

 Title: Perhonsidonta / Simo Lumme, Juha Pusa   [Perhonsidonta=Fly Tying]

 1. edition 1988

 2. edition 1993

 199 pages (includes pictures)

 ISBN 951-1-12590-7

Author: Pusa, Juha

Title: "Urheilukalastajan käsikirja"   (That translates to: Sportfisherman's Hand Book)

Edition  1982).

(Simo Lumme wrote a chapter of dry fly fishing and was also the illustrator for the entire book)

Sources:

http://www.fishinfinland.com/sl.htm

 http://globalflyfisher.com/staff/torp/lumme.htm

 http://www.rackelhanen.se/swe/1084.htm

http://www.kalassa.net/perhokalastus/perhoreseptit/pupat/sl_pupa.shtml

http://www.sportfishingmagazine.fi/english/fly_tying_school/nalle_puh.htm

opaxff@gmail.com    "Olli Jääskeläinen"

http://www.perhopojat.fi/

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Roihuvuori_water_tower_-_Helsinki_Finland.jpg

Janne Edman

 

Roihuvuori water tower in Eastern Helsinki, Finland. (60° 11' 51" N 25° 02' 59" E) Built in the 1976-1977.Design by architect Simo Lumme. It is 52 metres high and can hold around 12,000 m³ of water. Photo by Finnish Wikipedia user Otto-Ville Mikkelä